Editorial: Tent dwellers need to pack up

Heartless? Cold-hearted? Cruel? These are the terms that some folks likely are attaching to an eminently reasonable ordinance approved this week by the Amarillo City Commission.

Commissioners voted 4-0 to clear out a tent city that has included a number of individuals encamped under an overpass at Pierce Street and Second Avenue. The vote came at the request of Texas Department of Transportation Amarillo District Engineer Howard Holland, who contended that the “campers” pose a potential traffic hazard.

The ordinance bans camping in public places between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. Violators will be hit with a Class C misdemeanor violation, which City Manager Jarrett Atkinson said is the “same as a traffic ticket.”

Is the city reinventing the wheel, so to speak, in getting a bit more strict with its homeless population? Not in the least.

Critics of the ordinance contend the city’s myriad homeless shelters already are full. Thus, they contend, the individuals evicted from the TxDOT property have nowhere to go at night.

Let’s avoid overreacting here.

Amarillo is not exactly Calcutta on the Caprock, with a teeming homeless population. The city’s caregiving community is not without resources to help those who need assistance. So, with a relative handful of folks living on the street, it falls on the caregivers to lend a hand when and where they deem it is necessary.

For his part, Atkinson is seeking to ensure homeless residents that the city’s police department plans to provide some sort of grace period before imposing penalties against those who do not comply with the ordinance.

The city is being caught in a bit of a whipsaw. It needs to provide a comfortable environment for all the 191,000-plus individuals who live here. Imposing zero restrictions on the public places where individuals can sleep at night can present a potential magnet for others who would venture here, pitch their tent and present even greater potential dangers to themselves and to the motorists that concern the head of the Amarillo TxDOT office.

The Amarillo City Commission was faced with a difficult decision. Commissioners made the correct one.